I love to cook and have wanted a place to store the recipes. Every time I make something at home that comes out great I will post it on this blog. I will also place a picture of how it turned out. Over time I will build up quite an online library to share. Please to post or email new ideas and feedback. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.

Friday, September 16, 2005

I was listening to a food podcast last week (The Vegan Cooking School). They interviewed a pistachio farmer who had a cool tip, replace the pinenuts with pistachio in your pesto. I had to give this a try. It came out pretty good. I am not sure I would say I like it better than traditional pesto, but a very good alternative.

Coincidently there was another basil tip I found from a podcaster. During one of the ReMARKable Palate shows in August, Chef Mark gave this tip:

Here's a tip for you basil lovers out there: When basil is plentiful, as it is now, buy it up (or pick it if you're blessed with a garden of your own) and puree it with olive oil, then freeze it. This will preserve it so that you have plenty for the winter. Now a classic pesto has garlic, pine nuts and Parmesan, but if you plan on freezing it, leave out these other ingredients and add them later.

Roast pistachios for a few minutes in a toaster oven. Cook pasta as desired drain and place in a large mixing bowl. Blend nuts, Parmesan, basil, galic and olive oil in a food processor. Mix pesto in to pasta. Mix in Cheese and tomatoes.

I started by heating the sesame oil in my wok. I threw in the diced shallot and the crushed garlic. I added the red onion chopped and the of chopped red cabbage. Added the soy sauce and mirin. Stir fried a few minutes.

2 tbsp olive oil1 tsp garlic salt3 salmon filets

I heated the oven to 350. I coated a baking dish with olive oil. Rubbed both sides of the salmon and placed left it in the dish. Sprinkled garlic salt over the filets. Covered the filets with contents of my wok. Baked fish for 20 minutes.

In the wok I slightly stir fried cilantro and green onions really quick. I placed the fish on plates with the cabbage mixture in the side. Topped the fish with herbs, sesame seeds and hot sauce.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

This is a simple chicken parmesan Kalani made. It was hard to get the recipe from her since she just threw it together. The amounts may not be quite right, but there is lots of room for play here anyway. You can make the pasta with lots of other fresh herbs.

Mix egg and cream in a bowl. Mix garlic salt, parmesan and bread crumbs and place on a separate plate. Dip chicken in a dish coat with bread crumbs and place in a baking dish. Repeat with reaming chicken. Top with mozzarella.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

When I was a kid Huli Huli chicken is so popular everyone I knew would often sell it for fund raisers . We would go around and sell tickets to the right to half a chicken. On certain day we would grill in the school parking lot or somewhere and people would come and go picking up the chickens they bought.

Heat grill. Mix all ingredients (except chicken) in a bowl. Brush sauce over the chicken. Place on grill. If you have a spit that works with your grill use it, otherwise you will need to rotate and turn every 5 minutes. Brush with more sauce every 5 minutes as well. Cook till done (about 45 minute).

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Basa is the sexy marketing name given to Vietnamese catfish (Pangasius bocourti). It is a very white and flavorful catfish. For this recipe I tried to give an Asian flair to an American breaded catfish. I also made a Nauc Mam dipping sauce.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix crackers, cilantro and green onions in one bowl. Beat the egg and olive oil in a second bowl. Get a foil covered, slightlly oiled, cooking sheet ready. One by one dip the fish in oil/egg mixture, cover in the craker mixture place on baking sheet. Cook for 15 minute (or until fully cooked).

Friday, September 09, 2005

My wife, Kalani, is a very good cook. She just does not really like to do it. When she does cook it usually is a recipe that has very few ingredients. I figured some people are looking for good simple recipes. So I will start posting Kalani's recipes denoted by the K icon to the left.

The first Kalani recipe is Honey Lemon Chicken. Very simple but tasty diner recipe.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a baking dish arrange chicken. Mix the remaining ingredients. Brush the mixture over the chicken. Cook for an hour or so (until the chicken is cooked all the way through). Baste and turn the chicken every 15 minutes or so.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

He is running a photo scavenger hunt now through Sunday looking for contestants. Once selected they will have New Orleans based food challenges and you can pay to vote for your favorite contestants. I think this is a very cool idea.

Beat egg in a bow. Add 1/2 cup of flour, beer and baking soda. Mix well. In another bowl add 1 tbsp of the remaining flour and a 1/4 cup of coconut. Set out a piece of wax paper over a cookie sheet (or two). One at a time dip shrimp in the batter, sprinkle with coconut mixture and place on the wax paper. When you run out of coconut mix (or when it gets too sticky), clean out the bowl and add another tbsp of flour and another 1/4 cup of coconut.

Heat oil in wok or fryer. Fry shrimp a few at a time. Place aside.

Break off the flowerettes from the broccoli. Steam them them and set aside.

Peel the broccoli stalks and cut the meat into match sticks. Mix broccoli with the remaining ingredients.

When we went to visit our friends Barry and Lisa a couple of weeks ago, Barry was making some great slow cooked baby back ribs. They were incredible, you know when they just fall right off the bone they are so tender.

So Kalani's birthday was this weekend so I figure I would take the opportunity to make some slow cooked ribs of my own. Ofcourse I added a good Hawaiian kine sweet and salty flair.

I have been making these mushrooms for years. There are very simple and I have never taken them to a party were they did not get eaten up quicklly. When asking what we should bring when going to a party friends often say (stufffed mushrooms).

For Kalani's Birthday this weekend we went out to The Peak City Grill & Bar (Thank you Alice and Jim or watching Joshua for us). This is a new restaurant opened this week in Apex. Since this was the first week they did have so difficulties to be expected. It was packed with people, drinks to a while to get, some confusion in food delivery (someone at our table was brought their appetizer twice) and my lamb was overcooked (but to be fair everyone else at our table's food was cooked just as ordered).

On the good side the food was very good (even my overcooked lamb had great flavor, very good meat). Their prices we very reasonable $13 -$23 for an entree, but included a choice of vegetable or salad and a starch. For all the meats from their grill they allow you to chooses from several different (and tasty sounding) rubs or marinade/sauces. I choose a blackberry caberent sauce for my lamb (excellent sauce). The veggie and salad chooses were also pretty good. I got a Ice Blue salad with applewood bacon and blue cheese crumbles, but I could have chosen asparagus with hollandaise sauce.

Over all I think we enjoyed The Peak City Grill & Bar. I would recommend it and I am sure we will go back some time. It is nice to have a new reason to go to our historic down town.